Movie Review: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

The early years of the X-Men’s most mysterious member is finally revealed! From his childhood, to life as a solider, to becoming a living weapon, we witness the birth of Wolverine. Accompanied by members of his special ops team, Wolverine seeks revenge on Victor Creed, Sabretooth, the man who murdered the love of his life. He will travel down a road that he is not ready for, and the results will change his life forever.

I am a hardcore X-Men fan. More so than anything else, this is what I know and love in comics. So needless to say,  I was very disappointed in this project. Since the first X-Men film, I have come to terms with the changing of the story line because I understand that sometimes the source material does not translate well to the big screen. And that these films are made for everyone to enjoy, and not just the fanboys. What I don’t get is why these writers feel that they need to change so much in the core of the story. I really felt that they fundamentally changed the origin of Wolverine, and not for the best. They took major parts of the heartache and strife that make Logan who he is, and replaced it with some very wishy-washy events. For me, it made Wolverine’s character less than what he is.

From what I have read, director Gavin Hood (Rendition) was asked by Hugh Jackman to direct this film. So right off the bat you have this director that has no vision for the project directing the movie. I am sure if Jackman asked me to direct his next film I would do it even without any experience. When you are not familiar with the source material, you cannot understand the repercussions of the changes that you allow. You don’t get that what makes Wolverine and Sabretooth such great adversaries is that they are so much alike. They hate what they see in themselves in another person.  Wolverine cannot cut the animal out of himself so he will try to against Creed. Hood’s visual shots are good enough, but it’s nothing that we haven’t seen before. In fact, I think that he allowed too much CGI in just the general landscape of the film. Wolverine’s a gritty character and this was almost too pretty.

Like I said, I am an X-Men fan and I admit that there were definitely some good geek moments. I enjoyed seeing many more mutants in the film. Gambit is obviously a high point for most. Although, actor Taylor Kitsch tries to do a Cajun accent at first and then loses it later. It reminded me of Halle Berry in the first X-film trying an African accent for Storm, then scrapping it altogether in the next films. His powers looked cool, but they were tweaked a bit. I won’t tell you how and maybe it’s not a big deal, but they are different.  Will.I.Am , who plays John Wraith, does a decent job in the film. He gets off to a rocky start but gets better as he goes on. Still, the best appearance is by Ryan Reynolds who is none other than the, “Merc with a Mouth,” Wade Wilson. Reynolds just does what he does best and portrays Wade the way you read him. He is the best part in the film, and most of his stuff is at the beginning. If they decide to do the rumored spin-off, I would definitely see it. Jackman plays the Wolverine that he made famous, but I think that I enjoyed Liev Schreiber’s Sabretooth more. He gave us a more refined Sabretooth than we usually see. I know that the character has nothing to do with refinement, but he pulled it off well. His look was great and his feral side was even better. He gave me some great moments and you can see why he is feared by the other characters.

For me this film is a D+. It was not the worst thing that I have ever seen, and the “+” is for effort. They changed the source material way too much for my taste. If you liked X3, you may like this film. I didn’t care for it, but some will. Let us know what you think after you see it this week. We will have our Sunday Holla Back discussion on the film.

Fanboyz Grade: D+